THUMBOSWhat is ThumbOS? ThumbOS is a CLI (Command line Interpreter) based application used to load bootable ISO or IMG files to a thumbdrive. Sure there are other applications that do the same thing such as gtk-usb-creator and Unetbootin to name a few. What makes Thumbos different? It is as I said a CLI based client. This app has saved my rump more then once. I have been locked out of the desktop due to issues in Mate 1.6 and it allowed me to load out a new image from the raw TTY. Did I mention it is faster then any GUI (Graphical User Interface) based client I have seen?

Loading out Windows 7 using ThumbOS:

Booting Ultimate Edition 4.2 in a Virtual Machine using ThumbOS 1.0.5

ThumbOS 1.0.5 Displaying Notification that it is done. It also says "It is done." Through your speakers in a Cylon voice.

Thumbos --help [COMMAND] for further information.theemahn@JackHammer:~/Music$

When I built Ultimate Edition 4.0 and installed it (awesome O/S BTW) i continued to advance it futher by re-building it and fixing idiosyncrasies. I advanced the O/S and went to load it out to a thumbdrive with gtk-usb-creator and it crashed. No error message, just died. I can now see in the logs what happened it segfaulted:

Not a dealbreaker, we have unetbootin too right? Wrong, segfault again (something I will have to look into heavily as I aproach the final release of Ultimate Edition 4.0). It is things that happen to me such as the above that causes me to take matters into my own hands. Will those programs be fixed? I'm sure, so why write Thumbos?

CLI based; to me means when I build O/S's I don't have to leave the comfort of the terminal I can immediately load out an ISO image for testing.

Diversity

Speed

Low overhead

Features

I'd like to start by covering the features. Thumbos uses as a backend dcfldd, similar to dd aka "disk destroyer" as taken from the wiki:

dcfldd is an enhanced version of dd developed by the U.S. Department of Defense Computer Forensics Lab. It has some useful features for forensic investigators such as:

On-the-fly hashing of the transmitted data. Progress bar of how much data has already been sent. Wiping of disks with known patterns. Verification that the image is identical to the original drive, bit-for-bit. Simultaneous output to more than one file/disk is possible. The output can be split into multiple files. Logs and data can be piped into external applications.

I released this app integrated in Ultimate Edition 3.8 to admin, beta testers, and donors on the Ultimate Edition Test Server and got no feedback, good or bad. Sometimes no news is good news. I have been using this app religiously to load out operating systems and find it to be flawless in design. I have since enhanced it & I have deliberatly tried tossing switches that were incorrect to try and get it to screw up without success. This app in no way shape or form should be taken lightly. The damage it can incure is massive & irreversible, however it will not do so with out your consent.

Usage erase;Thumbos -e <DEVICE> [quick|secure|full] Quickly erases the contents of <DEVICE> thumbdrive. Example: Thumbos --erase sdi secure If the [full] or [secure] option is used it will wipe the entire drive. This is a slow process and the information is non-recoverable. Specifing no option is the same as using the default [Quick] option.

Warning: The contents of the device will be entirely wiped and unrecoverable using the secure or full option.

Note: The partition number is not necessary as the entire drive will be wiped.theemahn@JackHammer:~/Music$

It will prompt you in bold red for example: WARNING: this will erase all content on device /dev/sdi. (Y/N)? None the less, I TAKE ZERO RESPOSIBILITY IF YOU HOSE YOUR PORN DRIVE

Lets cover the other features in short order. Low overhead? You can not beat a cli application in resource usage period and goes in hand in hand with speed accordingly. Diversity, is that it is CLI. Optionally directly test the thumbdrive to boot the O/S. I have been also writing a tool to format in android based format called mkfs.android and may eventually enter this program instead, we will see. Enough flapping your gums TheeMahn. Lets drop some source code:

Source Code:If you are looking to learn programming, my code is heavily commented. I do so to encourage others to learn. I highly discourage you to just copy and paste the source code into a text file and execute it, as it does have dependancies that are not built into any Ultimate Edition minus 3.8. I recommend you download the deb listed at the bottom of this post to satisfy these dependancies:

# Direct linking mkfs.ntfs https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ntfs-3g/+bug/1158732# To fix, I wrote a mini howto: http://askubuntu.com/questions/343847/mkfs-ntfs-is-not-found-through-the-ntfs-3g-package-is-installed# For now, I work around the bug by directly checking for the app.

function DiskImageInfo { # Set needed varibles, we do not need to check for existance of $1 we # would not be here if it does not exist EXTENSION="${1##*.}" FILENAME="${1%.*}" BOOTABLE=$(file $1 | grep -m1 "bootable")

${bldgrn}$PROGNAME --help [COMMAND] for further information.${txtrst}";; ALL|e|erase) echo -e "${bldwht}Usage erase;${txtrst}${txtgrn}$PROGNAME -e <DEVICE> [quick|secure|full]${txtrst} Quickly erases the contents of <DEVICE> thumbdrive. Example: ${bldgrn}$PROGNAME --erase sdi secure${txtrst} If the [full] or [secure] option is used it will wipe the entire drive. This is a slow process and the information is non-recoverable. Specifing no option is the same as using the default [Quick] option.

${bldred}Warning: The contents of the device will be entirely wiped and unrecoverable using the secure or full option.${txtrst}

Example: ${bldgrn}thumbos --load utimate-edition-4.0-x64.iso sdi ${bldred}Warning: The contents of the device will be entirely wiped.${txtrst} ${bldylw}Note: the partition number is unecessary as it will replace the entire drive.${txtrst}";; ALL|v|version) echo -e "${bldwht}Usage version;${txtrst}${txtgrn}$PROGNAME -v${txtrst} Displays $PROGNAMEs version number and exits.";; ALL|h|help|\?) echo -e "${bldwht}Useage Help [COMMAND];${txtrst}${txtgrn}$PROGNAME -h [COMMAND]${txtrst} Displays this message. For futher information $PROGNAME help [COMMAND] or refer to the manpages.

Thanks, this is the only tool I use to load Ultimate Edition. I will still include gtk-usb-creator and unetbootin in Ultimate Edition, I don't expect the end user to have to utilize the terminal. Glad to see a fellow terminal Jockey

Thank you, thank you TheeMahn!!!! Those other 2 are getting to be a real nightmare! Pretty sure is due to all the changes that have come down in the past 6 months and they just are not even trying to keep up! Anyway am going to really appreciate this fine tool as I know when you make something, it is done!!!! So can not thank you enough on it and always wishing you the best of times!!!!

Thanks and happy holidays to you. In an unrelated topic did you see I updated all Ultimate Edition themes on http://themelinux.com ? Ultimate Edition 4.0 theme has been downloaded almost 300 times. I just put it on there, they were downloading them as fast as I could post them

So far can not find on the menu anywhere even though installed. App finder and command line does not find it either? Must be something disagreeing with this OS I built. Will be a first! Of course still wish I was able to get the newest Ultimate, but for not can not happen with this poor speed and limitations! Yes, was awesome to see your work on Gnome Looks!!! Finally a real artist unlike a lot of flim flams on there with hardly touched or any effects to the originals! Going to get some more up too! Getting great cooperation in this system now if only I could think of the right stuff!!! Going to stick with a lot of the imaging as love the looks it gets on Gnome, has that new car shine look. Least I call it that! Probably best way to describe it. Was what I did on Black Beauty III. So far is the one most downloaded. Yours will knock it down in another day or so!!! Am a real sucker for color effects, but is looking like not so many others are! Anyway if you have any suggestions to get that thumbOS working on this OS of mine, please let me know. Startup disk never worked for me on any distro I built or downloaded. Unetbootin works but studders here and there when it comes to finding the file. I hope you will keep uploading to Gnome looks someone needs to show how themes are really done!!!! Am just not that good enough yet!!!!

I replaced my parents hard disk in thier computer with an SSD and had to re-install windows. No problem right? Unetbootin will not load out Windows to a thumbdrive, gtk-usb-creator the same situation. My solution? Continue application development on ThumbOS to support writing Windows to a thumbdrive I know there are tons of tools in Windows to preform such actions. What about me, I run only Linux and kicked Windows to the curb it does not reside on my PC except in ISO format. I could in all right I am sure do the same with MAC O/S etc.

Adding Windows support to ThumbOS has more then doubled the amount of code involved. I have added ISO detection, not 100% foolproof yet. I have also added code for partition detection. Whether the thumbdrive has 4 partitions, 1, zero or any number in between it will detect and rectify the situation:

Downloading Windows 8.1 trial to see if I can also get it working...So far only success with Windows 7, will see if I can get it working with XP as well. I might as well make it a complete application.

The unloading of switches are currently for debugging purposes. I am also going to add Internal Field Separator (IFS) for long filename support as Windows users love to name their files with spaces etc. This will be a large undertaking for example:

You know me, not at all crazy about Windows, either! Just still curious why I can't find thumbOS after I installed it. Would absolutely love to try it out! Am not so keen on the other 2 as I always get some flac from Unetbootin if I have a disk in the drive! Startup disk, always fails after spending 15 minutes waiting for it!!!! Same has happened on every OS I have used and built! So that much I can not blame on my poor building skills!!! Little by little I am getting my love Shawn weened from Windows! She is on my OS, of course yours would have been a much better example, but least she is starting to understand things! Finally got her to stop using Explorer, ew is that thing a nasty beast! Been showing her the frills of Firefox, a browser than can be depended on! Anyway as I always say, you have style, class and are massively intelligent, so now who do you thing I would love to have a program from???? I know if anyone can beat all the hassles and make it happen it will be you! Always the best wishes as you deserve nothing but!!!!

Just used to load Mint 13 "Maya" (32-bit) LTS (linuxmint-13-kde-dvd-32bit.iso) onto a Dell OptiPlex GX280 with only a CD drive.BBOSAK2143 - thumbos lives in /bin as a shell script, so you access it from the CLI.